Real Estate Sessions Rewind - From Kindergarten to Contracts: Megan's Journey in Real Estate

Yeah, So I was 26, like I said. And it, it was. I walked in as from Kindergarten World, right, where you're like, be kind and treat each other with the golden rule.

And then I walked into a real estate office and I was like, hi, I'm Megan and super bubbly and super, you know, just basically who I am now again. But I was greeted with not as much excitement as I had. Let's, let's call it that.

And, you know, just a lot of like, I remember the first day I did floor time, the agent telling me that I was going to fl just like the rest of them.

You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions and I'm your host, Bill risser. With nearly 25 years in the real estate business, I love to interview industry leaders, up and comers and really anyone with a story to tell.

It's the stories that led my guests to a career in the real estate world that drives me into my ninth year and nearly 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 378 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast.

As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend. Today we're going to go up to the Palm coast of Florida and we're going to be talking to Megan Farrell Nelson.

Megan and her husband Brady have a team with Real Brokers LLC. They've been in the business roughly 12 years, kind of in that range, doing some really cool stuff.

I've had a chance to work with them at the Re Bar camps in Florida, whether it was at the state level or one coast up in Jacksonville. So I know you're going to enjoy this conversation. Let's get this thing rolling. Megan, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Well, I can't tell you how much fun I think we're going to have today because, you know, you and I, we're Ari Bar camp buddies. You know, we've, we've been in a few sessions together. I'm watching you take a picture right now, so I know you're going to post this.

It's a social thing, so I wouldn't expect anything else. That's great. Well, Megan, I want to. I want to start at the beginning. This is what I do.

I like to find out the backstory of interesting people in the business. And so doing some research, I was looking around, I saw a lot of Pennsylvania in there, a Scotia of North Carolina.

And then you've been in Florida for A little while now. So I'm just going to guess born and raised in pa. Am I right?

Correct.

Whereabouts? And tell me a little bit about growing up in Pennsylvania.

Yeah, so I'm actually from Scranton, which everyone thinks is so cool because the office, Dunder Mifflin does not actually exist there. But yeah, I grew up in a city called Clark Summit, right outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

You know, grew up with all the seasons, including the snow. And you know, it was college.

I can remember I was walking to class in college and my face hurt and my hands hurt and I was like, this ain't it for me. And I was going to school to be a teacher at the time. And so when I graduated, there was a big, big push for hiring in the Carolinas.

And so I went down to the Carolinas because I knew I wanted to get out of the snow and ended up getting a teaching job.

Scranton is, I think that's closer to Philly than Pittsburgh. Right.

It's northeast, so like the Poconos, I'm about an hour and a half outside of New York City.

Okay, so I'm just going to guess, you know, do you grow up as a Phillies fan or an Eagles fan, you know, when you, when you live in Scranton, or does it go the other way?

I grew up as a New York Giants fan and a Yankees fan. Yeah. Crazy.

How does that happen?

Philadelphia is actually further away from where we live than New York. And I don't know, I guess you kind of go with your parents, right. And my, my dad was a Giants fan and a Yankees fan.

And then my mom's side of the family, they're like hardcore Eagles, like season tickets. Like we'll not. We can't be around each other if the teams play each other kind of stuff. Yeah.

Which, which the Giants and the Eagles play every year, so. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And I and my brother moved to D.C. and I was like, cool. So now you're like Redskins, Eagles, Giants. So perfect. Yeah.

So tell me, growing up in Scranton, you know, I, I know roughly, hello jars. We're talking, you know, 20 years ago. You're going through high school. Right. And, and before that, what is it like, you know, growing up there?

My dad was a builder, so. And my mom was a schoolteacher. So you know, just.

I was always involved around my parents because my dad, you know, we could go to the job site whenever we want, like had a bobcat in our backyard still. There's a bobcat in my parents backyard right now, which, if you don't know, a bobcat is a piece of machinery, not the animal. Yeah, right.

Yeah, it's a little tractor. It's kind of cool.

Yeah, a little tractor guy. But, yeah. So I grew up basically, like, on construction sites or at, you know, school with my mom or with my mom after school and things like that.

So I kind of was immersed in the real estate business world without really knowing that I was. And then, you know, the teacher world, which is the path I ended up pursuing initially out of college.

By the way, I have to ask you about King's College. Yeah, yeah, tell me a little bit about that, because I've never heard of that.

So it's King's College. It's in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, and it's like Christ the King. So it was a. Yeah, so it was a religious school, I guess I was not religious.

That's not why I chose to go there. I went for sports because, you know, at the time, that was. That was my thing with sports, and that's how I picked my college. But, yeah, I went there.

Majored in early childhood and elementary education.

Awesome. Now, wait, you said sports. Did you play sports there? Was that part of the plan?

Yeah, so I played. My mom is actually an A D1, NCAA, like, national champion in field hockey. She was on the national team. Yeah.

She's in, like, all these hall of fames all over the place. And for field hockey, where'd she.

Where'd she go to school?

She went to Shippensburg University, which used to be D1. Now it's D2, but at the time it was D1. And, yeah, they won the national championship. She was like, mvp. She's. She's incredible.

And I started playing when I was really young, and then it kind of was like, oh, well, you're gonna play, and you're, you know, expected of me. And then my middle. I was like, I'm not playing, and I. You know, I'm not being like my mom.

And then I came back around to it in high school, and turns out, you know, some things are also inherited. And I was pretty good at field hockey, and when I went to college, I.

My girlfriends who played hockey, some of them played lacrosse, and they were like, hey, why don't you try out for lacrosse? I said, okay. And I tried out, and I ended up making the starting team my first year. And so I played field hockey and lacrosse in college.

Wow. So for those that don't know me included, the difference between field hockey and lacrosse, one, I'm going to guess is the stick you're holding.

They're quite different. Am I right?

Yeah. So you're, you have a hockey stick and it's obviously the balls on the ground, but it's very, honestly, it's very similar. So like when you.

I'm showing Bill. When you dribble, you do this on the ground and then when you run with the lacrosse ball. So it's the same basic motions with your wrist.

Just one's in the air and one's down and then. Yeah. So, you know, and they both have goals. So you're trying to get down the field, up and down the field.

And really it's, you know, it's a lot of speed game and an endurance game. Another fun fact about me is I'm a marathoner. And yeah, I've run five full marathons.

And so, yeah, I'm a little bit of a, I guess, like glutton for physical pain when it comes to that kind of stuff. But yeah, it was. Wow. Yeah, I just was really, I was really good at running in college, I guess.

Both those sports, incredibly physical. Right. I don't think there's, there's not the level of contact that can happen sometimes in sports, but I'm sure it's still there.

And there were, you know, you probably have a few stories. We'll get to those on episode two.

Yeah, right.

I can talk to you the whole show about, about your. I had no idea. You know, we've met quite a few times, we've worked together and I've never knew that you were a lacrosse in field hockey. Jock.

That's great. All right, so let's, let's get, let's get to the fact that you get out of school, you end up in North Carolina teaching.

Yeah.

But somehow, somehow we have to get you to Florida.

Yeah.

And real estate. How does, what's that transition look like?

So I was a school teacher making $30,400 a year in North Carolina, which, you know, as a 20 year old, that's not such bad money. But once you start getting to 25, 26, and you have to like talk about buying houses and stuff, it's a little bit more challenging.

And I was working, I was working at a gym, I was waitressing on the weekends and I was teaching full time. And you know, that sounds all good when you're single. But then I started to build a life with other.

Someone else and I needed a more, a different income. That person I was building a life with lived in Palm Coast, Florida, and I lived in North Carolina.

We had dated long distance and at the end of the school year, he owned a commodities brokerage. And I, you know, it was time for one of us to move. And so it made more sense for me, who made $30,000 to move my life.

And also I could teach in Florida. And when I got here, I knew I didn't want to jump right back into teaching.

So I was just, you know, hanging out a little bit and just staying at home, enjoying the beach and Florida life. And I actually got really kind of depressed. I was like, man, this. Like, I need. I need something you can only.

I know this is going to sound kind of weird, like you can only go to the beach so many times. You can only, you know, but when you're by yourself, right? When you're.

And I was 26, and I was excited about life, and, you know, that just wasn't it. So upon a few suggestions from some friends, they were like, hey, why don't you get your real estate license? You like people and you like to talk.

And so I was like, okay. And, you know, that was almost 11 years ago. And 11 years later, we're still here, still doing it.

But, yeah, I got my license in 2013 and joined a local brokerage down here and just hit the ground running.

First of all, I've had. I've interviewed a lot of people on the show. And you didn't teach a long time, Just a few years.

But I'm going to assume even in those few years, whenever I talk to teachers who move into real estate, there's a slight advantage there. I think there's just a different way of thinking about things. You know, education is a massive part of a great agents, you know, tool chest.

And so my guess is that was a big, big help for you, right?

Yeah. So I was actually a kindergarten teacher, which I adored. And so I kind of, when I transitioned, I was like, all right, I'm taking care of.

I went from taking care of, like, their most valuable possession, which is their baby, right. To the largest transaction. They're going to have experience. And so, you know, it's kind of like kid gloves both ways.

And like you said, you know, over explaining things is really big in real estate and education.

And I went from teaching people who knew nothing about standing in line and reading and writing to, like, breaking it down on a very low level for them. And so it really did transition naturally into helping with real estate, because I was able to break it down.

I'm able to break it down now even, and talk to people who've never sold before or take it up to people who have done it lots of times. So. Yeah. And everyone said, you know, like teachers and nurses, they're the best agents because they care. And, you know, that's another thing. Is it.

And Brady, also my husband and my business partner, he was a former educator. And so it's kind of cool how we do. Like, we just left an appointment this morning, and we were both educating the whole time. And it's really.

It's really been a fun transition and not just with our customers, but also now we have an office where. And a team where we're recruiting agents in. We're training them. And so that has been a huge, huge thing.

We didn't even realize, like, when we opened our office how much that was going to be a part of. What we enjoyed is the education part, because it brings us back to who we are in our core. Like, we are educators. So it's a really cool transition.

Now I can sell one house and make $30,400 instead of.

True. True. Yeah. Especially on the coast in Florida. So I want to ask you this way.

You are relatively young, maybe I'll say very young, that first year in the business because it tends to be a second career, but usually people are in their 30s, sometimes even 40s. Right. Maybe even later before they make the leap. So first of all, what was it like the first year?

I mean, I could imagine that you had some old veterans hanging around that it was just a little bit different. Any stories from there?

Yeah. So I was 26, like I said, and it. It was. I walked in as from kindergarten world, right.

Where you're like, be kind and treat each other with the golden rule. And then I walked into a real estate office and I was like, hi, I'm Megan and super bubbly and super, you know, just basically who I am now again.

But I was greeted with not as much excitement as I had. Let's. Let's call it that.

And you know, just a lot of like, I remember the first day I did floor time, the agent telling me that I was going to flounder just like the rest of them and being like, so nice to meet you, Sharon. That was kind of my first experience with it. And then it took. I mean, I think it's just like, like starting anything new.

It took me time, like cutting my teeth, as they call it, to get the earn respect. I was the youngest president of our local board ever, too. I was president in 2019, and I was 32, I believe, at the time.

And that was even more challenging than Getting in the business, Like, I could get people to trust me with their house. But once I got into leadership, they were like, what's this little girl gonna teach me?

So, you know, it definitely was an uphill battle at the beginning, which anything new is. But I also think I had an advantage being young because I didn't care what anyone thought, right? I moved here.

I knew one person, his best friends were real estate agents, so I wasn't getting referrals from them. So I had to go knock on doors. I had to, like, join clubs.

I had to join, you know, like, I supported the Humane Society when I got there because I knew everyone liked two things. Everyone likes their kids, and everyone likes their dogs.

And so if I could find a group that, you know, if I'm there, they already like me because they know I'm. We're on the same page. I did that with the Humane Society. And I wasn't embarrassed to knock on doors. I wasn't embarrassed. Embarrassed to make calls.

I wasn't embarrassed to do video, you know, and that was back when video wasn't the cool thing. Everyone, I remember, they were teasing me.

She puts her listings on Facebook, and I remember sitting in the seat and ignoring it and feeling really bad because I also came from Kindergarten World as a teacher who, if I thought someone was doing something not right, I would have reached out and offered help rather than stood behind them and commented.

But don't worry, because the next year, I remember the same agent, as I'm sitting there on the computer, came up to me and said, hey, are you putting your listing on Facebook? And I said, yeah. And she said, how much money do you think you made last year off of Facebook? This is probably in 2015.

And I was like, I can count for exactly $30,000. And that was the first year I had made six figures. So I was pretty excited that 30% of it came from social media.

And she was like, wow, can you show me how? And, you know, I could have been a jerk, right? But I was like, yeah, absolutely. And so I ended up teaching a class.

And so that's kind of how I got into teaching things, was just from doing it first. But I just. Back to what you were saying. Being young definitely was an obstacle because I never had bought a house before.

So I was, like, really coming into it fresh. But I did not have the ego or the bad habits. I didn't have anything. So I really could do whatever and fail and not care. I just had to get back up.

That was like, I failed. So Much. And I cried and I fell, but I never stopped getting back up.

You started with like a regional kind of a local company, Right. Were they kind of up on the training and mentoring or were you kind of on your own?

No, the brokerage I was with is a phenomenal brokerage in northeast Florida, one of the largest. And they had a great training program. And that's why I went is they had like a great training, a non competing broker.

But with that came the split that matched all that support.

Yeah, no, it's. There's a cost for everything. Nothing's free. I understand. Yeah, but that's important.

It's important to know that with no sphere to speak of, I mean that's really. There's no tougher way to start in this business than what you had to do.

A place where you don't know anybody and there's other success stories that have been on the show and it's, it comes from what you did. It's just getting out there doing the work. Right.

Yeah.

Well, and I think that, that, you know, had I known, I say it all the time, had I known what it was going to look like, I probably would never have gotten into real estate.

Like, I remember sitting down and making my first business plan with my broker and you know, had like goal income and I had 50,000 and he was like, okay, you know, we're gonna up that a little bit. And not me being like, no, I could never do work to make that much.

And you know, just like going through all of it and all the work, I thought that it was going to be. And then it turned out it was more.

But it really has, you know, it's really shaped me as a person, all of that, like the grit and the perseverance and you know, like crying about sellers doing whatever and just. It helped me learn too throughout the years because at 26, you know, the world looks a lot different than today.

But it helped me to like get better at my job because I wasn't afraid to fail. So I was like going through the stuff with strangers and you know, if I messed up, okay onto the next. But yeah, so, I mean, I'm very grateful. I got.

I always say whenever I meet young people in their 20s in real estate, I always give them my number. I'm always cheering them on and I always try to reach out because I know how hard it was and how unsupported I felt.

And so, you know, Brady and I really try to like, if somebody brings an offer that has something wrong with it, we will negotiate on behalf of our client or customers, and then we'll help them instead of, like, shame them or, you know, say they're bad. We help people along and we teach people as we go.

So I see a lot of that with you at the bar camp. You know, we've. We. Whether it's a state bar camp or one coast, which we just had a few weeks ago as we're recording this. Yeah.

And talk about the opportunity. There's a lot of young people at those RA bar camps. It's pretty cool.

You made a comment about running for the board, you know, and actually president of the board and your local association. You're a big supporter of the volunteer and the work that volunteers do in the. Not to the local level only, but at the state level.

You've been involved. NAR level. You've been involved.

Yeah.

Why do you. Why do you find this so important?

Well, it was really how I got started on education for myself.

You know, I had not really much going on my first year, and I remember somebody, an experienced agent coming by my office and saying, hey, have anything to do today? And I said no. And they said, well, come on, we're going to the board.

And at the time, we didn't have a young professionals network at our local association, so I ended up founding that. And through founding it, I met at the time inspectors who were my age, lenders who were my age, and the younger people were coming in.

And so I advocate for board involvement because those are like, those people I met are my inspector 10 years later, my lender 10 years later.

And the relationships I have from that group are so easy for us to do deals together because we have that core relationship and we all are vested in education and doing things the right way. Right. You know, ethically and. Yeah. And it's just. It just taught me to, like, what. What the business is and understanding the bigger picture.

And, you know, I think the number one thing that agents don't do, I really think it's the number one thing they don't do, which makes me crazy, is they don't learn the contract. They don't. They. They just know what blank spots they need to fill in. Right. They don't understand a contract.

And I think that's one of the major things that Brady and I, we understand that contract forward, backwards, inside out. And we can advocate for our customers because of that.

And I only know that because of how involved I am at a state and national level, because I know when they change the contracts, I know why they're changing the contracts. I know what's going on with insurance. I know all of that stuff because I'm at the board and I have a pulse on all those updates.

And so it's really interesting to me.

I didn't realize how much it did give me a leg up in my career from getting business, you know, in my local market and also building relationships around the country. Our involvement at the state level and nationally gives us between 30 and 40% of our business coming from Realtor to Realtor referrals.

So our business is basically 100% referral unless you find us on social media. So it's either past customers or agent to agent. And. And I focus a huge part of our marketing dollars and our energy into agent to agent referrals.

And that wouldn't be possible without that, without my initial foot in the door at NAR and then of course, coaching nationally after that.

Megan, I want to talk to you about a time in your life that you've been open about.

You've actually written about it, a book, and it was a very traumatic event and how, you know, if we could just talk a little bit about, you know, how that affected you and how you've worked really hard to get to the place you are now. Do you mind sharing that story?

Thank you for asking. I'd love to share that. So several years ago I went to a conference just like I've done many times before and have done several times since.

And at that conference, at the networking event afterwards, you know, unfortunately I was drugged and then sexually assaulted. And it was by, you know, people at the conference, fellow fellow agents and, you know, that obviously that experience shook me to my core.

My husband and I were married at the time and we were in business at the time and we had an 18 month old little boy at home at the time. And you know, it. It was hard. It was really challenging.

And the part that what surprisingly was the most challenging for me was after I came forward about it, it was all the abuse and harassment that I got for coming forward. That abuse took me to a really dark place.

And it was almost three years ago now, it was three years ago now that I was at the point where I was contemplating suicide.

And I wasn't just contemplating it, I actually planned my suicide because I just couldn't take being called a liar and not being believed in all these things. And I didn't understand why I was being again victimized for doing what I thought was the right thing.

And I looked at my, at the time, almost two year old son. And I looked at my husband and I said, hey, I need help or else I won't be here anymore.

And immediately we had started researching some places for help and I ended up going to a women's only trauma recovery center and it was in another state and I was gone for 105 days, away from my baby and my husband. Looking back after what had happened, the assault, I was in a lot of pain, right? And I knew that there's two ways I could go about healing.

I could either go through the pain and process and heal, or I could try to live my life while numbing it with substances. And my choice.

I knew that if I picked up a drink, the pain was so severe, I knew that if I numbed it even a little, I probably wouldn't be able to stop numbing it. And so by the grace of God, I didn't pick up. I quit drinking and I never picked up a drink since.

And that was over three years ago, over a thousand days ago.

And so I think that that horrible situation I went through, I think that being able to turn away from substances and being able to take care of myself when I needed to are really what helped me heal and continue to heal. And after going to treatment and coming back, you know, I had to really decide how I wanted to move forward with my future.

And you know, one of the things I did which I think was a blessing because I had time off is my calendar was absolutely clear. And so I started, I could take my calendar and I could fill in the things that I love to do and the non negotiables for Megan.

And I started with boundaries around my working hours and put that in. I started with putting in yoga, you know, and that was, that's an appointment, non negotiable. Put that in.

I even at the time I penciled in time to put toes in this, I put toes in the sand.

And even if it was just like driving five minutes with my toes in the sand at the beach at the beginning, at the beginning of this healing experience, sometimes I really just needed that five minutes to get my toes in the sand to like bring me back to reality. I have been able to transform my life. When all this happened, I had been running at 100 miles a minute, right?

Like I was all about recruiting, I was all about sales. I had to be the top sales. Even if I hit my goal, it wasn't enough. Can any other real estate agent relate?

And this situation caused me to hit that wall at 100 miles a minute. And sometimes this is my story. Everyone has their own story, but they can be very similar.

So from that, I was able to regroup and build a life that I love now in this industry. I love it. Brady and I bickered more before this happened in our business than we. We don't argue about anything in our business now.

You know, it caused us to get really organized. It caused us to dial in on our focus and really just find out what brings us joy. Because I didn't just go through this, right?

Like, my husband and my business partner also went through his wife going through this experience. So it's not like our team was just like, one person could run it and everything was fine. We really had to look in and find why are we in real estate?

What parts of this job bring us joy? What parts of this job are we really good at? And what parts of this job do I never want to do again?

And from there, we were able to outsource, you know, the stuff we didn't want to do, and we were able to really put our goals together as to why we're doing it. And now, you know, even on hard days, I can look at, like, the bigger picture and see, okay, you know, this is why we're doing it.

Or like this morning, going to a listing appointment with my husband. He went. Took Elijah to school, went to the office. I stayed home with the baby. The sitter came, and we met at this listing appointment.

And it brings me so much joy today to, like, pull up to a house and see my spouse there. That joy wasn't there before because I was so consumed with the numbers and so consumed with the image I had to put on.

And so it's really, you know, it's a shitty situation, but it's brought us back around to what really matters and including, like, the new baby we just had. Right. You know, and. And it's. I have a whole different experience postpartum this time than I did with Elijah.

You know, when I had Elijah five years ago, I was president of the board chair for the YPN for the state, on like, four NAR committees and however many charity boards in our local area, trying to be everything to everyone. I really was. And so I was nothing because you can't show up as everything to everyone.

I was like a dulled down version of me and a tired version of me and a mean version of me. I was really mean if things didn't go the way I thought they should. And that's because I was wound so tight and so Stressed out and so anxious.

And today I knew we had a son 12 weeks ago, little Lucas. And I want to be home with him because that's what's important. And so now I'm figuring out, how do I be a mom and work? And it was the opposite. Right.

Like, my focus now is family and what's important.

Good.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for sharing that. I mean, I know that's not easy, but I think it can definitely help someone listening. So that's awesome.

If you are listening and this is something, you know, like alcoholism has affected you or, you know, the life of excess that comes along with real estate and that pressure to be bigger and be better all the time has affected you, and. And you want to reach out or change your relationship with alcohol. I'm always here. I'm happy to.

Happy to talk about it and happy to be a support in your corner.

Cool. We'll have in the show notes, we'll have ways for people to reach out to you. So that's awesome.

You know, you talked about Brady and getting together, you know, running a business together as husband and wife. Let's talk about the building of a team a little bit. Right? Just to give a little.

Maybe a couple tips and tricks that you learned along the way that would help someone who's at that point where they're thinking of doing the same thing, starting a team.

Yeah. So I love this question, because I literally did everything wrong in building a team. Like I said, I told you, I failed a lot, and I started a team.

My team's. I had my license for 11 years, and I think my team's nine years old or eight years old. It's right after.

So I was 27, building a team, knowing nothing about the industry. And I would say if I could do it again, here's how I would do it. First, hire as a transaction coordinator.

If you don't have a transaction coordinator in this business and you are doing more than one deal at a time, you are not doing a service to your customers. I truly believe that. Our transaction coordinator, her name's Shout out to Joanna. Love her. She comes to re bar camp, too. She. I call her my safety net.

She's my brain and just keeps everything intact. From there is when you can bring in buyer's agents.

I think the number one tip I would give, if you want to, if you're talking about building a team, is to talk to team leaders and to really see what it looks like. Because to run a team efficiently and to provide the value you need to provide to agents. It's a lot of work. And I don't.

I think people think like, oh, I'll get a buyer's agent and they'll do my showings and they'll show buyers and I won't have to do it anymore. And that is not the case, especially if you want to run it at a high level and you want people to do business, you know, your way.

So the three biggest mistakes I made was one, I hired a buyer's agent first. You can't do that. You have to have systems in place to hire to bring on a buyer's agent. You have to know how you run your business first.

So definitely don't hire a buyer's agent out the door. The second biggest mistake I did was I stayed at a brokerage that didn't support my team way too long.

So you need to make sure that if you're building a team that you have the support of your broker because it's going to be a lot of work and a lot of leaning on them a little bit. And maybe even having a broker or someone there to help you would be best.

Which leads me into my third one is I started a team without a coach and so I had no one guiding me in the right way to do it. And I think that's why I had so many mistakes. But hiring a coach is definitely. That's done it before. That's.

That's had the team that has the team or had the team that you want would be definitely the first step to moving in that direction.

Awesome. Megan, we're getting towards the end here. I'm looking at the clock. I'm going to go over time. You're going to get upset. Let me. We have. There is a.

We're good on time for me.

But yeah, you have a saying that moves you forward. I don't want to say the saying. I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. How'd you find this nugget and how, you know, how do you use.

Is it a daily thing?

So it's don't quit before the magic happens. And I actually, the first time I heard it was in a meeting, a 12 step meeting room.

And I thought it was really beautiful because I was sitting in a room full of people trying to better themselves and heard this phrase and tried to apply it to my life. And really what it came back to was just in the real estate industry, you can't quit. Right.

Like I always tell new agents, all you have to do is out fail the person next to you, and. And then you're going to make it right, because that's how it goes.

And so for me, when I heard don't quit before the magic happens, it reminded me of this meme I saw back when I first got started. And it's underground. It's two men with pickaxes, and they're heading.

You know, you can tell they're hacking away at the dirt, and they're trying to get there. And one guy has his ax over his shoulder, and he's moving forward towards the diamonds.

And then the guy below him is turned around and has it on his shoulder, and he's looking disappointed and walking away from what his goal was and what neither of the men see is just how close they are to the diamonds. And the man who was walking away was maybe one or two hits with his pickaxe away from those diamonds, but he quit.

And the other guy who's up there still going at it, he's one or two hits away from the diamonds, and he's not quitting. And so, you know, that meme, really, it's a silly meme, and I'll send it to you, Bill, so you could link it if people want to see it.

But that silly meme, I found it 11 years ago, and it's still something that sticks with me because, you know, you never know when you're going to find success in this business. And it could be on that next call, right? How many times do you hear no?

And then you pick up the next call, and this person, it's like they needed to hear from you, like, you're the agent of their dreams, and you can tell them you're able to help them, you know, whatever their real estate goal is.

And if you didn't pick up and make that call, that last call after you were told no or f off 500 times, you wouldn't have been able to get there to that magic. And so I think, you know, it's just really. It's just out failing, you know, the person next to you and also learning from those mistakes.

And that's part of the magic as well as hitting those goals.

Megan, this has been great. I'm going to wrap it up with the same question I've asked every guest, and you get your shot at it. And that is what. One piece of advice.

This is really hard. It's one piece. What one. One piece of advice would you give a new agent? Just getting started.

Well, I'm gonna have to tease you a little bit on this, but the piece of advice is. The same piece I'm gonna give you about your wonderful podcast is get on video.

I knew I was gonna get in trouble with you. Go ahead. Video, Video, video.

Yeah, video, video, video. You know, if you take a look at the history of real estate agents, we really were the first people to put their pictures on business cards. Right.

You know, it's. It's. It's what you do. It's not an if, it's a what picture are you going to use? Right.

And the reason for that is because buying real estate is such an intimate purchase. You're not. It's not a pair of shoes.

You're helping people decide where they're going to raise their families, or you're helping someone sell their mom and dad's house. And so you need to build that relationship with them and that trust with them. And video is the quickest way to do it.

And there's nothing anyone can say to tell me otherwise. 93% of communication is nonverbal. And so, you know, you can't get the full effect by picking up the phone and calling.

And video can look like a lot of things. It doesn't have to just look like a listing tour online.

It doesn't have to be you out front of a house or explaining how the home buying process works. It could just be you sending a video text, you know, like, hey, Bill, it's Megan. Happy birthday. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday.

Hope you have a great day. Talk to you soon. Or, you know, hey, Bill, I was just thinking of you. It's Thursday morning, and you popped into my head.

I hope you're having a great day. Talk to you soon. It could be a quick text like that, but what it is is you're showing people who you are. They get to see your smiling face.

Everyone loves smiling faces. Just the psychology behind video is. And you and I, right now, we are seeing each other, and so we're building a relationship.

My brain doesn't know you're on the screen. I don't know if you've ever watched a show when the main character dies that you've been watching it for years, right?

Tough.

Have you ever had one? And you're sad? For me, it was the Walking Dead.

So I don't know if anyone's a Walking Dead fan listening, but when Glenn died on the Walking Dead, I was physically ill for three days, and I was, like, crying about his wife and how she was. Was pregnant. Brady's like, megan, Glenn's not real.

And his Wife.

His wife might be pregnant, but Maggie on the show, she's not really pregnant either. And I'm like, no, but it's because I spent eight years building a relationship with Glen on the screen. I've never met Glen. He's not real.

But guess what? I loved him. And when he died, I was sad. Translate that into real estate. I get my face in front of customers, and guess what?

When they meet me, they don't shake my hand. They hug, right? And I get calls that say that aren't like, hey, we're interviewing agents. It's, hey, come list my house.

You know, I see what you do for all the other listings. A lot of times when we're up for those Facebook groups, that's the listing appointment we were at this morning, Swip Swap.

You know, looking for an agent Flagler. Everyone comments on it. I said, brady, let's get this people's phone number. And I sent them a video text, and we were at their house this morning.

And so, yeah, video. There is so much magic in video. And really what it. All it is is your relationship building without being face to face.

And, you know, the best part about it for me is the second best part is that people see me and love me and they call me and they want to work with me. The best part is the people who don't love me, I never waste my time on them because they build the relationship and they don't like me, Right?

They look at my videos and they're like, I will never work with. She is just bubbly and smiley and too much for me. And they never call me.

And so it really has differentiated our business, like, set us apart in our business with our customers and also with our time. So get into video. Just do it. You look like what you look like. You sound like what you sound like. And all the people who see it love you.

I do have a video channel on YouTube. You can go find it. It's Bill Richter. There's over 350 videos there. I just picky and I do different things, I guess.

I told you. I told you. I had to tease you.

I know this. This has been great. If people want to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Yeah, Feel free to, you know, follow me on any social media platforms. It's Megan Farrell Nelson on all of them. You can find me there. You know, if you get there, my cell phone's there.

And if you want to call me, feel free to reach out anyway. But social media is the best start.

And Megan Farrell Nelson Megan, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much for taking some time out today and taking care of this and and I can't wait to see you at the next event.

It's probably going to be an event somewhere in Florida, but we will meet again.

Thanks Phil. Have an awesome day.

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